19 February, 2008

Green Meadows Petting Farm or What do you do when you disagree on your child

When we were planning our vacation, we knew we would not be spending every day at the parks. Spotty is 2, we thought it would be overload. I had read good things about this farm and I will admit, this may have been one of the best things we did. It was close to where we were staying, and they suggest packing a picnic lunch as there are no food options at the farm. The farm has a continuous tour so once you get to the animal you started with your tour is over.

As soon as we pulled in Spotty saw the old fire truck and dozens of tractors that were just begging to be climbed on. We picked up a little red wagon and headed over to the hay ride. There is something about a hay ride that is so simple and yet so fun. We then learned about turkeys, pigs, horses, donkeys and sheep. We got to feed a bunch of the animals, but some of the most fun came from the great chicken chase. The kids were encouraged to pick up a chicken. Spotty was all over this. He had no fear and did a really good job picking up chickens. We went on a pony ride. Spotty seemed very proud of himself. Next on our tour was a train ride. It was nice to get off our feet for a few minutes. After the train ride Spotty got a chance to milk a cow. He seemed pretty impressed, but liked playing with the calf more. We learned about the water buffalo (apparently the mozzarella sticks that Spotty loves? It comes from the milk of these big guys. And then we went to where they had baby chickens and ducks, we all sat in a circle and got to hold a baby chic which was warm fuzzy goodness.
Now here is where the disagreement comes in. All Spotty wanted to do was play on the fire engine and tractors, I kept telling him that we could do that as soon as we saw all of the animals. Spotty kept asking and I kept telling him. He wasn’t whining or being bratty, he was just saying that he really wanted to play on these things. By the time we got to the baby fowl Spotty wanted to run around. Boy toy was getting annoyed because he was not sitting and listening. He got all pissy and said that our son was undisciplined and he was tired of everyone staring at us because our son could not behave like all the other kids. He said he was hungry and went to the car to grab our lunch. Of course I am like “fuck you”, our son in not undisciplined just because he wants to run around. He was not being disruptive, he was not making people uncomfortable, he was being a 2 almost 3 year old boy that has lots of energy. Was he the only child running around? Yes. But the majority of the kids in the group were girls, they tend to sit and listen better at this age. There were boys in the group, several older and a few younger. Our boy has energy and needs to move. It is what it is. Spotty then got a chance to pick up a duck, and since he was so successful in chicken chasing, he got in there and got down to business. He had everyone around laughing their asses off because he picked up the biggest duck in there. The damn thing was bigger than he was, and damn was he proud. Boy toy missed it; he is soo friggen lucky that I taped it. He also missed the girl who kept getting yelled at because she was in the duck’s pen playing with their food. We got to pat and feed goats (where boy toy missed 3 kids getting yelled at because they would not get out of the goat’s sleeping place). We saw some lamas and then the tour was done. Spotty and I went over to the picnic area and had some lunch with boy toy and played with one of the puppies that was running around (there were 16 dogs on the farm.) Finally we made it over to the fire truck, tractors and playground. Boy toy and Spotty spent a good 2 hours climbing on, in. over and around everything there was. Then it was time for home. Spotty fell asleep on the way back to the condo. Boy toy and I sat on the porch and had a little talk about what was going on. We agreed we would try to be less pissy. We will see if it works.

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